Ripppe

Yea, I was a little surprised seeing them. Luckily, as far as I have observed, they haven't actually done anything, except getting pinned by my small arms fire. I'll provide the overlay picture, probably with the next turn (I have already played and somewhat documented that turn).

Some of Cércy's troops seem to be trying to advance to Farmhouse A. Cércy's view to my troops. Observer that the immediate danger zone is the hedge and the space right behind it. Harbor is taken without any incidents. The vanguard continues to advance towards Fortress. Some overall thoughts Retrospectively I think it would have been a wiser decision to reroute Easy from where the scouts moved. At they current position they tend to be a sitting duck just waiting an artillery barrage or Stug/Flak scoring a big time. I don't yet have a fire superiority so I'm declined to execute my assault plan. It will probably take another turn or two until all elements of Easy are in position, so I will asses the situation then. No enemy movement on the left flank. I should be able to notice if Cércy tries to capture Fortress, but everything has been dead quite for now. It might be that Cércy won't advance at all from there, which would give me a big advantage. Pics from center and left flank will be provided in the next turn. Cheers, Ripppe

Turn 4 Situation just before the video ends. Krauts keep popping up like mushrooms in rain. Turn 5 Brave men of Easy company return fire while rest of the troops are still getting into positions. Stug keeps harassing Easy. This time the round went through the hedge (injuring one soldier in process) and blew up further back causing no additional casualties. It is only a matter of time when Stug hits the jackpot. Unfortunately it is positioned in such a way that I am afraid to bring my tanks forward. The flak - though pinned atm - possess a big risk I'm not willing to take. Therefore I have planned the first indirect fire solution: Three fire plans have been decided. 1) A point target to flak spotted during the first two rounds. 2) An area target to the other flak (Easy's FO doesn't have LOS to it) and 3) A line target targeting Cércy's current infantry location. All fire solutions are to harass and pin down Cércy, giving me an opportunity to advance. If Easy just holds out three minutes...

Turn 4 concentrates to the right flank since things catch up little speed! Turn 4 First, albeit weak, baseline gets established and first bullets are shot, targeting the Flak (bullets can be seen in the last pic if you watch closely enough...) Few moments later, more of Easy company has reached the hedge. Stug awaits its prey stationary. The small flash down one tank icon is in fact first round from this Stug. Luckily it didn't hit anything. As far as I know, Cércy isn't aware of my Sherman, so Stug's shot was probably aimed at the infantry. A stray bullet catches one of my pixel troops! Dang, first blood is in. Sherman advances to a better position, concealed by the forest. Two guys in the pic belong to Easy company's HQ element.

Sorry lads for the long delay. I have been extremely busy the last few weeks, and haven't had time to compose the AAR of pictures that I had already taken... But here they are, finally! Happenings occurring during turns 3 to 5. There is plenty of photos, so hopefully they will suffice. Turn 3 Easy's first elements start they rush through the open field... ...and they spot yet another Flak 44 standing stationary in a wheat field. Top picture: A lonely sentry watches as troops of Dog Co. shift their position to the right side of point Village. Other pictures: The rest of Dog Co. has almost reached the initial fire positions. The vanguard of Fox Co. reaches Harbor. Overall situation of the center and right flank. Note that although Easy company's lead elements are quite bunched up, the plateau offers them quite good coverage. Turn 4 coming up.

I'll certainly try! I have already pics from turns 3 and 4 and things are about to heat up...

The vanguard of Fox company makes it way to Harbor next to point Fortress. Assault plan for Easy company Here is the illustration of how Easy company's assault to Farmhouse A should go. Parallelograms represent squads, circles HMGs, squares 61 mm mortars and pentagon Sherman. Blue/green are platoons of Easy company (bright green, 1st platoon, greenish/blueish 2nd platoon, blue 3rd platoon (reserve)), purple is the detachment platoon from Dog company. The plan itself is roughly this: Easy company will establish a baseline, detachment platoon will hold the flank. When everybody is ready both E1 and E2 will commence the assault simultaneously, advancing one squads at a time via the marked paths. I'm still not sure which is the best way to move the squads through the field: using assault command or using fast command combined with maybe splitting down the squads. This depends on the force Cércy has against them. Support assets (HMGs and mortars) will stay and provide fire support. Once squads are through, the support assets will move. E3 and detachment platoon will fill the blanks in the hedgerow in order to sustain the fire superiority. The space is too little for my liking to force this size, causing some heavy bunching up, but I hope to complete the assault before Cércy can get a barrage there (if he realizes what is coming for him). The bunching up is also caused the poor FOV in certain points, so I need to get my support assets to the places where they are the most useful. For example the left flank of E1, as seen in the pic below:

Next turn in. Overall no big things happened, though I spotted some more of Cércy's troops. More sightings You probably remember the Stug from the last turn. Well, it (not surprisingly) did get some company. First another Stug showed up, and then a half track carring pioneers. In the last photo, the original Stug is seen while the other spotted this round are in background. The next sighting I did not expect: A flak cannon. I'm surprised that Cércy brought static guns with him. The good thing is that the flak stays where it is, the bad is that it has somewhat clear(ish) sight to point Easy through, which might have consequences for Easy company. Other pics Recon elements have now established a baseline to the road section which I will call Crossroads. The force of Easy company masses at Easy through. M4A3 Sherman is waiting for the men to get ahead. Half of Dog company is waiting for the steel storm to arrive...

[The pictures of the first turn in better size & format.] "Pretty" pictures Recon elements advancing in Easy company's sector. The men of Fox company look at the long way they have ahead of them before reaching point Fortress. Surprise Stug As I mentioned last time, the only interesting thing I glimpsed was a lonely Stug. The scouts did see it only a few seconds and during that time, it seemed to be rotating itself towards Hill 123. Most likely at least one tank heading to meet Easy company. E: Just to be clear: the stug was spotted on the other side of the map (near setup zone of Cércy's) Orders Not much to say here. Fox is executing its approach to Fortress. One platoon of Dog company is getting to fire position to provide fire in Village. Easy company is moving to positions to commence the assault on Farmhouse A and further to Hill 123. Hopefully those are clear enough!

ian.leslie: Thanks for pointing that out! Didn't pay any attention to the fact that GDrive releases those pictures in png format... Did a quick test and those pictures with three game pictures inside get to 961x1365 -> ~250K. No biggie for me, just have to alter the way I provide those pics.

SpeakEasy: I noticed that also, though I have no idea why it keeps happening. I'm publishing the pics through GoogleDrive, so the issue may lay there. Curiously this inconvenience occurred (at least for me) only with the above post. The others have been fine so far. If it keeps happening, let me know so that I can try to work something up.

One correction first: in the above post I of course meant that it wasn't my intention... "Pretty" pictures Recon elements advancing in Easy company's sector. The men of Fox company look at the long way they have ahead of them before reaching point Fortress. Surprise Stug As I mentioned last time, the only interesting thing I glimpsed was a lonely Stug. The scouts did see it only a few seconds and during that time, it seemed to be rotating itself towards Hill 123. Most likely at least one tank heading to meet Easy company. E: Just to be clear: the stug was spotted on the other side of the map (near setup zone of Cércy's) Orders Not much to say here. Fox is executing its approach to Fortress. One platoon of Dog company is getting to fire position to provide fire in Village. Easy company is moving to positions to commence the assault on Farmhouse A and further to Hill 123.

I can assure you that it was my intention, though now that I look the photos from 'cinematic' point of view, they do blend quite nicely.

Here is a rough sketch of what I'm up with at this point. Very rough setup. Basically this is how I have planned it to go: Fox company will attempt to take and hold point Fortress. If they achieve this, they will provide fire support from that location but also use this left flank as an attack route to the center. Two platoons will conduct the attack with the help of an HMG and M4A3. One platoon will stay in reserve. Dog company will not advance to Village before I have a better knowledge about Cércy's troops. However, a recon element is dispatched there to scout the environment (the red circle). One platoon will compose a baseline to the two dotted lines visible while the other acts as a reserve. A mechanized element is ready to storm the Village when needed. Easy company has the objective of assaulting and holding Easy through and Hill 123. Especially from Hill 123 there would be nice flanking routes to the center. I anticipate that this won't be an easy task. Therefore, Easy through point will act as a fire base - both to the Hill 123 and Village. This task is given to the detached platoon of Dog company. There is two M10s in Easy's sector, ready to shoot some Kraut tanks! Easy will advance with two platoons while one stays in reserve near Easy through. M4A3 can provide supportive fire if needed but I'll try to keep it hidden. The recon element will rapidly advance to the intersection near Farmhouse A (the second red circle), and tries to keep it until Easy arrives. The second mechanized platoon will stay as a mobile reserve. Main goal here is try to surround Cércy's troops and then launch an assault from multiple directions. I do have my concerns about this plan and atm I believe that I cannot achieve a superiority in the flanks. But the truth is that I cannot just stay and wait what Cércy does (+ as you can see, pretty much my whole army is bunched up and I need to clear some space as soon as possible). The first minute is played and though it was very quiet - as expected - I caught a glimpse of something interesting. Unfortunately I don't have time to take the pics so unlike me, you have to stay and wait... Cheers, R

Views from fortress Note how this big hill dominates the map. You can pretty much see everywhere from there. Only problem is that it is barren and offers now cover from artillery/mortar fire. The view down the road to Village The view from Field day to Scarecrow and Hill 123 Views from the three topmost positions in Easy through. From top to down Views from the bottom most location in Easy through.

Finally had the time to take the pictures. I beg for forgiveness in advance since I don't have a picture editing tool and the pics I take won't be the most awesome you have seen. Let's hope that they will suffice. The map So the map is a medium sized village type meeting engagement map called 0AcropolisME. Map overlay. North is in the top of the screen. 2nd overlay picture, this time east in top. Overlay wth markings. The red triangles represent interesting terrain points on the map. Green circles represent places from where I have taken some photos for you. They offer (at least to some extend) a good view to appointed direction (roughly between the green lines). Blue place names are codenames I have given to some of the locations to help pointing the map places from my narrative. There is also a quick sketch of the force composition and how they have been laid out (I'll discuss them more while revealing my plan). Now that i have been taken these photos, I have come to realize that the map is definitely not the best one for forces this big. We will probably see some interesting troop handling here. Views from Hill 123 The top picture is from left, middle from center and bottom from center albeit fromt little different position. Views from Scarecrow. From left to right

womble: Thanks for the tip, will definitely try that if (and when) I get a chance. I normally try to deploy 60 mm mortars near the front line and use their direct fire rather than calling them as fire support, though usually they end up a little back from the direct front line, preferably to terrain which gives them a good FOV. I do have three TRPs from which two are placed to locations I suspect Cércy will most likely use as "sniping position" for the tanks. The third one is deployed to the only VP location on the map in case I need to flush some troubled Germans out of their positions.

Erwin: A good question since we have never established an actual rule for this (e.g. max 10 tank units or max 1/3 of QB points to tanks). The general idea is that both have some mix of infantry, mechanized units and tanks, but we haven't felt a need to dictate this further than that. The size of the battle is huge (although the map would probably be more suitable for large or medium) so I expect that 5-10 tank units per side will be close to correct. With mortars I indeed hope to close the gap their MGs cause though I'm curious has Crécy done something to negate this. -R

Hello there good folks of BF forum! As most of you probably notice, I'm bringing some new blood to the forums, though - to be honest - I have been lurking around here a few years now. For your delight I decided to share an after action report of a meeting engagement my friend (from now on I’ll use his favorite nickname Crécy, some may know him from Subsim forums) and me are just about to start. The game will be the default CMBN (without any modules) with the 2.01 patch. This is not the first time that we battle, and as our tradition is: I’ll be playing the allied forces while my friend commands the axis. Unfortunately it seems that this AAR will be one sided – sort of – since my friend is busy with other stuff and didn’t promise anything with our AAR, though he didn’t completely abandon the idea about writing the axis AAR so we just have to wait and see… Nevertheless he agreed to take some pictures every turn and send them to me after the battle is done, so I can at least release those for you guys to look. Better than nothing, don’t you think? Meanwhile I try to give you the narrative side of how my plan evolves. To avoid unnecessary double posting I’ll write my initial comments & thoughts to this post, and add the plan itself (with pics) to the next one. Initial thoughts As I mentioned, this is not the first time we play combat mission against each other. Therefore I have some retrospective thoughts that I try to take into consideration with the plans and orders. Medium sized disclaimer: Neither of us (as we have both agreed) is a tactic genius, so if you think that my plans suck, they very well might.  Back to the thoughts which I have listed down below: The first thing I have noted is that I won’t be winning this game by armor. In our QB games it is quite typical that each of us brings around 5-10 tanks. My highly sensitive super combat mission sense tells me that Crécy is probably going to bring 1-2 tigers, 1-3 panthers, 1-3 panzer IVs. This is only a hunch but still, that setup is a force to be reckoned. My allied armor just cannot withstand those beasts in a direct confrontation. This leads to three things: My infantry’s AT capabilities will play a big role I’ll bring 6 tanks: 3x M10, 3x M4A3. The way I will use them is a scoot and shoot –tactic from strategically important positions. Overall I try to keep them out of sight and use them to cunningly attack from where the opportunity rises. Frankly I expect to lose 2/3 of those tanks during this fight, but hopefully they won’t die in vain! Unlike in the matches before… Use the terrain to my advantage. The map we chose (I have to check that one for you, can’t remember the name) doesn’t exactly support long ranged tank combat because of the bocage and hilly terrain. So Crécy will either need to bring the tanks alongside his infantry (and not just let them stay outside the frontline sniping my unfortunate soldiers) or he has to rely on few key locations which offer a better view. The first scenario supports my infantry’s AT capabilities, since they have a (theoretical) chance of sneaking to a good fire position and bring down the beasts! The key locations (I have identified two likely and one not-so-likely) can be dealt with artillery fire enhanced with TRPs. Of course the artillery may not kill Crécy’s tanks, but it will force him to react (e.g. withdrawing tanks off from the fire, giving me a ‘free’ opportunity to advance). The second thing is fire superiority. The terrain forces us to use infantry, which is more to my liking, if we drop outside the fact that German’s MG capacity extends mine… This is a constant pain in my ass when Crécy’s squads pin down mine with the damned MG fire. If used strategically it can be devastating as most of you probably know already. There are only two things that I can really do about that: gain the fire superiority by 1) bringing more guns or 2) trying to take the most out of the terrain. The first point is somewhat completed by the force I chose: the main bulk of main infantry consists of a PIR battalion. A light mortar with every platoon and an LMG (1x platoon I think?) are a good start. I have further enhanced this by giving 2x HMG for every company (3x companies in total, so that makes 6x HMG). The second one is a tiny bit trickier since I tend to be quite cautious player. In a fear of losing my troops I don’t take much of risks. In this game I try my best to take more decisive actions and even try some risk taking, though I don’t intend to go completely reckless. Let’s see how that goes. The last thing I need to bear in mind is that as Crécy himself has stated, he tends to neglect the artillery. This leads to an assumption that he will try to use them more this time. Recognizing those spotting rounds can be crucial if I intend to keep my men alive. The force So, what will I bring with me to achieve a victory: 1x PIR Battalion consisting of 3x Companies Each company has an attachment of 2x HMG and two of the companies will have a FO with them. 4x 81 mm mortar section (4 tubes), on map 1x Recon element consisting of 4x jeeps with 4 soldiers in each 2x M8 armored cars 1x HT (HQ unit) 1x Armored infantry element (assault/reserve force) 2x platoon of armored infantry with HTs 3x M4A3 Shermans 3x M10 TDs 1x Battery of light howitzers 1x Battery of medium mortars Few notes I’d like to point out about the composition of the force: No heavy artillery since I don’t need massive barrages. Artillery’s two functions for this scenario are: 1) pinning down key locations if needed, and 2) gaining fire superiority for advance. A separate recon element. First time for everything! To be better prepared to execute my plan accordingly, I want to have eyes in front ASAP, so that I can scout out Crécy’s avenues of approach and get a grasp of what I’m against. Reserves. A dedicated motorized reserve will hopefully serve me well. My airborne troops will be in the frontline, motorized platoons coming to rescue where needed or acting as a mobile assault force. Overall I try to maintain a platoon sized reserve for every PIR company in order not to massacre all my men at once. Next post will reveal my master plan and layout the map for you. Cheers, R PS. Almost forgot to mention. We are playing by the gentlemen rules so no tank spamming and no initial artillery barrages to the setup zones.